Knowledge, Integrity, and Common Sense

We practice the art of financial planning

Why Liberty Financial Group, Inc.?

Want a fee-only, fiduciary advisor that listens and truly cares about what is important to you?

Want your assets managed individually, rather than in a boiler-plate model?

Since 1981, we have been putting clients first. As a fee-only planning firm we are paid by our clients only. We sell no products and accept no commissions, referral fees, or outside compensations. Operating under the fiduciary standard we provide pure, financial planning and investment recommendations in the best interest of our clients. We charge for our time, planning advice, and portfolio management only. As a result, our Liberty Financial Group team serves as your personal guide, leading you to achieve your aspirations with integrity, knowledge, and common sense.

For many people, retirement is one of life’s biggest transitions. Some have prepared well, but others are way behind because time goes by and they never seem to get around to it. Whether you are already retired and need to firm up your plan or still working and need to get started, the Liberty team is ready to be your guide to success.

Besides your vision of retirement, planning retirement must take into account many pieces of the puzzle that make up your life.

Among them, we consider:

Your age, health & life expectancy

Your spending habits (wants vs. needs)

Your savings/investment accumulation

Your family & estate plan

Your bucket list

Our goal at Liberty is to work with you to figure out how to help you achieve the retirement you envision, so the rest of your life is fulfilling and as worry free as it can be.

We'll help you decide things like:

Are you counting the days to retirement or will they have to throw you out?

What do you expect from retirement? Is it like your parents? What is your vision?

Do you have any hobbies or outside interests? What are you retiring to?

Do you plan to retire “cold turkey”, or phase into retirement?

Do you worry about if you have enough money to last as long as you do?

Do you know the best age at which you should take Social Security?

Do you know when to tap the various resources you have accumulated, e.g.. IRAs, annuities, etc.

What are you most looking forward to?

What are you most concerned about?

Give us a call to set up an initial, free consultation to see if we are a good fit to help you achieve the retirement you hope for whether it has already started or is in the future.

Financial planning is more than managing your money; it’s also managing your life. It’s about the “how” and “when” of achieving your dreams and goals. Going beyond investment advice and portfolio management, we strive to understand what is truly important to you and then build a financial plan around that.

We fuse life + financial planning together to create the most effective plan. Together we:

There is no “one size fits all” roadmap to success. Everyone’s plan is unique. You need a plan that is just for you, designed with your uniqueness in mind. And you need someone in your corner who knows you to help you stay on track.

Everyone has dreams and goals and often it takes baby steps to eventually accomplish big things. Knowing what steps to take and when to take them is often the problem when it comes to properly managing your finances. By focusing on the life you really desire and guiding your saving and spending toward those goals, we can help you address your concerns in a more productive way.

Every choice you make affects your finances. Where you live, if and who you marry or don’t, your career choice, how many children or pets you have, how you spend or save, what you invest in…all have an impact both short and long term on your life plan. Let us help you prepare for and make those decisions with confidence.

When an obstacle or a roadblock comes along, are you prepared? That’s where flexibility and thinking through optional ways to deal with it comes in. They are all part of the plan we work together.

What about life’s inevitable transitions? The journey from one stage of life to another is something we all experience, childhood to adult, career to retirement, full house to empty nest. Losses are the toughest: loss of a loved one, loss of health, loss of independence. Yet many transitions are joyful: birth of a child, a promotion.

Financial Life Planning puts you in charge of your future. Let’s work together on getting where you want to be!

Would you rather do something else with your time than manage your investments?

We are investors not traders. We manage investments in a diversified manner with a total portfolio approach, incorporating all your assets, including real estate, business, employer plans and personal assets, like slices in a pie.

Our clients are looking for balance; someone to step into their shoes and invest the way they would if they had the time, the interest and the knowledge. It is our goal to help you understand, feel secure, confident, and capable every step of our path together.

We take into account where you are, where you want to be and how fast you want/need to get there.

First we determine your needs and objectives:

Do you need income now or later?

What are your specific investment goals?

What is your investment history and/or experience?

How well do you tolerate volatility or instability?

Are there to be any restrictions?

Next we design a strategy to establish the slices of your “pie”:

Together we update your plan regularly to adjust to your changing needs and goals. On a monthly basis we track the current estimate of our holdings. We have a system that enables us to more consistently “buy low and sell high” and helps to override natural human emotion.

Knowledge for your journey

What are manageable assets? Cash, stocks, bonds and other investments.What are liquid assets? Assets that are hard to convert into cash or are lacking cash. e.g. Real Estate, Business, etc.What are investment restrictions? Things you would never buy or sell.

A Diversified Approach with a Value Tilt:

Using our value oriented approach, we diversify by the three categories, stock, bond, and cash, as well as, by asset class and/or sector. We further diversify by active and passive type and equity style of growth and value. This diversification is done to reduce investment correlation.

We then measure this approach against a composite benchmark similar to your projected risk level. The broad approach utilizes a core and satellite structure and emphasizes liquid investments.

Downside Protection:

As the markets have become more volatile, we will use vehicles that protect us for this exposure primarily using mutual funds and ETFs. To balance that volatility, we use vehicles that utilize long-short, merger arbitrage, managed futures, commodity, currency, and tactical asset allocation strategies.

These are predominately satellite positions designed to cushion the portfolio in highly correlated down markets. Since we believe no one can accurately time the markets, we will stay as fully invested as possible based on the availability of reasonably priced securities.

Call our team for a free consultation to see if our strategy fits your needs

Taxes can’t be avoided, but planning helps to lessen the tax bite wherever possible so you keep more of your income and investment earnings. Coordinating tax planning with investment management and tax preparation provides the opportunity to make decisions about savings plans, investment allocation, holding periods, fringe benefits and more.

At Liberty Financial Group, tax planning is a major part of life planning and is not put off to the side. We look at taxes as a piece in your “life plan” puzzle. Each piece affects all the other pieces, your investments, cash flow, insurance planning, estate planning, college planning, etc. But we don’t let the tax tail wag the dog either!

Our team has decades of experience and analyzes all aspects of your situation and works with you to use the tax code to your advantage. Tax laws and their interpretation change regularly, so we keep up to date on the changes and their effect on you now and in the future.

Tax preparation: This service is offered, but not required, and allows us first hand to closely understand your complete return. We also work closely with your own preparer, if you so choose and use those returns to enhance our planning for you.

As you can see, we can handle all aspects of your finances at Liberty Financial Group and give you the best opportunity to be prepared for the now and tomorrow.

M E E T

LIBERTY FINANCIAL GROUP

WHO WE ARE

Find out Liberty Financial Group's vision and mission to help you throughout your financial journey.

Tom Wargin, CFP®, CFA

Financial Planner & Portfolio Manager

Tom Wargin, President and current shareholder, is one of the founders of Liberty Financial Group, Inc. He carries the designation of Certified Financial Planner (CFP®). He is also a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designee and maintains his insurance license for consulting purposes.

As a registered investment advisor representative and portfolio manager, Tom uses a value oriented, contrarian approach coordinated with the client’s risk tolerance and financial goals in a simple, common sense style.

June A. Schroeder, CFP®

Financial Planner

June Ann Schroeder is one of the founders of Liberty Financial Group, Inc. She carries the designation of Certified Financial Planner (CFP®). She is also an RN having received her degree from UW-Milwaukee.

Her articles have appeared in many local and national publications. She taught courses and lectured nationally on financial planning; her favorite topic is “How to Avoid Becoming a Bag Lady.” June hosted her own radio show focusing on making wise choices in all aspects of life to achieve financial security and literacy.

June is a member of the Financial Planning Association as well as a number of business, professional and charitable organizations. She and her husband, Michael McCormick, live in West Bend with their dogs and cats and enjoy spending time at their cottage in central Wisconsin.

Shannon Nook, FPQP®

Vice President of Operations

Shannon’s experience with LFG began when she started working as a part-time administrative assistant in 1995. Promotions followed to full-time Portfolio Manager Assistant, Director of Operations and now VP of Operations and shareholder. Her organizational skills make her integral to our company. She regularly meets with clients while keeping our operations and client service running smoothly.

She received her certification as a Financial Planning Qualified Professional™ from the College for Financial Planning in 2007, graduated with B.S. in Financial Services in May 2014, and is currently pursuing her Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC®) designation. Shannon is actively involved in Financial Planning Association of Wisconsin and is a current board member.

David Wargin

Vice President of Technology Research & Practice Management

David Wargin is the Vice President of Technology Research and Practice Management for the company, determining the greatest use of technology and establishing best practices in today’s ever-changing world. He regularly meets with clients for financial planning needs and collaborates on investment portfolio allocations and trading. David also facilitates money transfer requests and periodic money distributions as well as performs social security and portfolio survivability analysis.

David is an avid reader and possesses a passion for history. He loves sports, both playing and watching, of all kinds and also enjoys cooking for friends and family.

Kirk Hackbarth, CFP®, CPA/PFS, MS

Director of Investments and Financial Planning

Kirk Hackbarth is a financial advisor for Liberty Financial Group and serves as the firm’s Director of Investments and Financial Planning. He has more than 30 years of experience in the financial services industry and has contributed to articles for Fortune Magazine, Smart Money Magazine, and the Wisconsin Law Journal.

He advises clients on numerous financial strategies in order to develop a unique plan to help them accumulate, maintain, and preserve their wealth.

Kirk holds a bachelor’s degree in finance and a master’s degree in accounting, both from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. He is also a Certified Financial Planner™ professional, Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and Personal Financial Specialist (PFS).

He lives in Burlington with his wife Sue and their three children, Sara, Anna and Kyle. Kirk enjoys spending time with his family, sports, fishing, travel and the outdoors.

Renee Kietzmann joined the Liberty team in September of 2017. She brings over 20 years of experience in business operations and office management. As the Client Service Manager, she is involved with making sure our client service coordination is in top performance along with operational management of staff, accounting maintenance and payroll systems.

A long time Liberty client, Renee’s transition to staff has been smooth. Her goal is to learn more about the financial planning process and contribute wherever she can. Her current flexible, part time schedule offers her time to spend with family, friends, sports, and volunteering.

Jessica Schenzel

Client Service Specialist

Jessica joined LFG in January of 2012 and has several years of executive support experience. In her role as Client Service Specialist, she provides administrative support in the firm’s daily operations by performing research work, data management and reconciliation, composing and processing client documents, and archiving records. Jessica enjoys serving as client liaison; working in unison with clients and financial advisors to ensure clients have a great experience. She also enjoys coordinating special side projects and events.

Richard Mikula

CFP®, Registered Tax Return Preparer

Richard carries the designation of Certified Financial Planner (CFP®) from the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards in Denver and also passed the Registered Tax Return Preparer Exam. He currently works with Liberty Financial Group to provide seasonal, part-time tax preparation and consultations.

Richard retired from a successful forty-year career at ATI Ladish LLC. During that time, he also worked five tax seasons part-time at H&R Block. In 2007 he embarked on a second career, becoming a member of the LFG team.

He enjoys being an active community volunteer. Richard has been a long-time volunteer for the “Make a Difference Program” teaching courses about basic financial knowledge to students at various local high schools in the Milwaukee area. He has also volunteered at the Bradley Center to raise funds for his local church. In addition, he enjoys reading, golfing, biking and spending quality time with his family.

Breanna Mitchell

Intern

Breanna joined our team in December 2015 to fill our intern position. Her duties include writing meeting notes, scanning and coding documents, entering investment price data (proxies and share values), answering the phone, scanning tax documents during tax season, and special projects, like creating invitations for events and working on other creative projects. She helps keep everyone on track and organized.

Breanna was born and grew up in Milwaukee. She’s currently going to school at MATC for Business Management and loves the flexibility that we offer with her school schedule. She enjoys reading, painting, spending time with friends and going to concerts.

YOUR PERSONAL GUIDE

LEADING YOU TO ACHIEVE YOUR ASPIRATIONS

VISION & MISSION

Our Goal is to help you feel safe, confident, and capable every step of our journey together. To accomplish this we’ve developed two main working relationships. An ongoing advisory agreement, entitled to ongoing financial reviews, quarterly summary reports, & specifications below. The second relationship is on a retainer basis, entitled to pre-paid financial planning reviews and the services below.

WE'D LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU

CONTACT

Visit Us

We are located 1 1/2 blocks north of Bluemound Rd. Pilgrim Parkway is the continuation of Moorland Rd. to the north of Bluemound Rd.Please look for our building sign “PILGRIM PLACE OFFICE PARK”, the buildings look like condos so it can be confusing to first time visitors.Our office is on the right when entering the parking lot.Parking is available in the front and rear, handicapped parking in rear. There is a central building elevator.Additional parking is available next door at 740 Pilgrim Parkway.

Get in touch

Alert: While we have clients in many areas we have only one location; Elm Grove, WI 53122, USA

We sell no products, nor do we offer debt consolidation, credit cards, mortgages or loans of any kind. Furthermore, we have no affiliation with companies of the same or similar name, including companies in any other areas or locations.